Language localization is the process of translating a product into different languages or adapting a language for a specific country or region. In the global market existing today, language localization is one of the most important features for any computing application. Static presentations of alphabetic text and numerals are amenable to translation operations and, as a result, are easily presented in local languages in computing applications. For example, with a static presentation of text of numerals, the localization operation would capture the text or numeric string, translate it to the local language, and then give it back to the application or user. As a result, the same application that was running is English is shown in a local language without having to create a different application altogether in that local language.
A problem arises whenever there is a dynamic numeric computation involved in a computing application, such as with a calculator application or a calendaring application. This is because there is no way to compute at the compiler level using local or local language numerals other than English. These dynamic computations cannot utilize the static translations described above due to the high overhead and complexity that would result. In addition, most of the numeric outputs on a computer display are dynamic computations and not static presentations, which only adds to the difficulties faced in presenting these applications in a local language.
The obvious result of this problem is that for any computing applications using dynamic computations, the dynamic numbers will be shown in English while any static text and numbers will be shown in the local language. For example, in a calendaring application in Hind, the month and day name will be shown in Hindi, while the date will be shown as an English numeral.
One possible solution to the above problem would be to modify the low-level compiler to be able to process non-English local language numeric data. However, this solution is highly inadequate and may even be impossible to do so in some cases. As such, a mechanism that allows the use of local language numerals for dynamic computation and interface display, without modify the compiler, would be beneficial.